12-14-2009 12:03 PM
Here is a short list of things I expect QuickDrop to do intuitively. I am not sure how all of them could be satisfied, but it is usually my first instinct to try these things. Comments are welcome!
12-14-2009 04:30 PM
Good thread idea, Jarrod. Here's what I think about the expectations you posted:
As for things I expect from Quick Drop, I've pretty much added all the ones I can already. But there's always the one that I can't fix myself:
-D
01-14-2010 12:27 PM
I really like Jarrod's idea of performing actions by typing a word/phrase. One drawback to the Ctrl keys is that you have to remember what action each letter corresponds to. It would be nice to be able to type in "align" when I want to align terminal labels in a VI, instead of having to remember that Ctrl-T performs the align action.
Jarrod, this might make a good suggestion in the Idea Exchange. I would certainly vote for it.
-Chris
01-14-2010 01:33 PM
I can see potentially huge differences between a simple Macro system launched by Ctrl-M and having integrated actions that one can invoke.
I own a Mac, and one of the absolute best things about it is the launcher program QuickSilver. It's actually much more than just a simple launcher. What's great about QuickSilver is its ability to string together various objects or actions to form a "sentence"-like operation.
For instance, I can invoke QuickSilver and type in a file to find and open it. But I can also type Email which then opens a second box where I can type in a contact, which opens a third box where I can type in that same filename. Now I've constructed an operation that will email my friend the file.
This is a powerful system. As soon as you have to leave QuickDrop to enter your custom Macro world, you lose all of QuickDrop's ability to navigate palette items or other related actions.
I would love the ability to type in operations like:
Replace >> Selection >> mySubVI.vi
Open >> mySubVI.vi
Insert >> Property Node >> Caption >> Text.
Create >> Unbundle by Name >> ParentCluster >> ChildItem1.
Here the ">>" symbols represent basic delimiters between the various action and object keywords, all of which should be matched by just a few keystrokes. The cool thing is this also allows us to drill into subitems. So you don't just have to add a blank property node or unbundle node, but you could populate it based on the originator's type information directly from QuickDrop.
And of course, if you could create custom plugin actions that understand this grammar system, that would be great. (You might have to work Saturdays ... )
01-15-2010 04:57 AM
We discussed something along those lines about LVSpeak here. The basic concept is the same, but we didn't get into much detail.
01-15-2010 12:53 PM
The basic difficulty with enabling this kind of idea is the sheer number of permutations.
The way to resolve this is to have an API that makes dealing with the permutations easy....which does not exist.
For example, what are all the things that you can do w/ the current plot of a plot legend or perhaps a Bundle by name BD node? a lot.
Can you figure them out programmatically? Not really.
Therefore creating a dynamic architecture that can enable a great deal of automation would be terribly difficult.
Now you could make a static architecture to just handle a variety of common commands to enable what you need most that still operated hierarchically, and add to that list of commands as you need.
And this architecture could handle a more hierarchical command structure, but the underlying commands would have to be hard coded (because of the lack of ability to dynamically determine what is possible 'smartly')
This is the avenue that LVSpeak did indeed take. There are still no nested voice commands, but they are arranged in a grouped / hierarchical fashion that works quite well and would not benefit a ton by adding an arbitrary level or hierarchicalness....... yeah.. I just made up a word.
But in actuality, you could have a separate program floating off in the ether handling these things for you.... they just wouldn't be linked into QuickDrop (which is starting to become quite the junk drawer of abilities beyond just dropping nodes quickly)
01-15-2010 01:47 PM
NJKirchner wrote:
... QuickDrop (which is starting to become quite the junk drawer of abilities beyond just dropping nodes quickly)
...wait 'til you see what I've got planned for LV 2010...
-D